


Those Nights

by Leafpool2



Category: Back to the Future
Genre: Light Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-30
Updated: 2014-11-30
Packaged: 2018-02-27 13:05:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2694095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leafpool2/pseuds/Leafpool2
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Marty hangs out at Doc's sometimes</p>
            </blockquote>





	Those Nights

Some days, normal life as a teenager got to be too much. Life with a family he had no memories with got too hard, and watching everyone head off to college was too overwhelming. On those days when he was at his lowest, Marty McFly always found himself in Doc's empty garage.

As usual, he seemed to find himself there by accident, he had intended to skateboard in the town square but found himself on his old route to Doc's. From the outside, the garage looked the same, but the sounds of Einstein barking and Doc shouting at some machine or other to _just cooperate for once or I'll melt you into scrap_ were tell-tale signs that nobody lived there anymore. His dad had bought the place a while ago so the bank wouldn't repossess it (nobody wanted it so it came surprisingly cheap) and Marty pulled the key out from under the beaten mat like always. Half expecting this year-long absence of Doc's had just been a joke and he would be inside making something, that secretly nothing had changed. But of course, everything had.

Marty left his skateboard at the door and leaned up against the giant amp (intact in this reality) his little yellow guitar was still there and he played it absent-mindedly as he thought. Marty was really happy for Doc, he was, the guy had spent a lot of his life alone in his big house, then alone in a tiny garage trying to scrape together enough money for time machine parts. His best friend had been a fifteen year old kid who broke in one day because everyone told him not to. It was because of Marty continuing to be his friend that some awful rumors had swirled around about the Doc. Now he didn't have to deal with that, he had a family, he was happy. And Marty was happy for him. Not that it ever stopped him from missing his only friend.

He had never really fit in in school. Even before Doc, he liked what the other kids did, but not properly. He didn't let it get to him though. Except of course, when he found a time to be by himself. He tried to avoid such things. But he could never run forever. When the self-loathing hit, it hit hard. But he hid behind a mask of cool confidence, his family was already so dysfunctional, no reason for him to be too.

It was why he opted to stay at Doc's some nights, he could just show up and knock on the door, Doc understood, he always did and he was always awake at what most considered ungodly hours. Sometimes they watched TV (Doc loved to share his favorite westerns with Marty). Sometimes they would try to watch TV but just start coming up ideas for various inventions, Doc attacking from a scientific angle and Marty from a more practical one. Doc would always say Marty could be a scientist if he wanted to, the ingenuity was there. Marty was always skeptical, unsure he'd ever get the hang of all the science terms out there. And eventually, through all this, the TV became like white noise. Doc was usually okay with Marty crashing on the easy chair for the night while he worked on things. Then there were the nights they would just drive around and admire how much nicer Hill Valley looked when it was quiet and dark. Those nights were what kept Marty going.

In his timeline money was always tight, the McFlys didn't have a lot and his parents tried to keep it a secret, tried to pretend everything was fine and they didn't start arguing at ten at night, every night. Marty always craved hanging at Doc's because he didn't have to hear it if he did.

The more he thought on it the more he missed that timeline. It wasn't ideal but he knew what was happening, had a slightly better understand of where he was, who he was. He had had his friend, now everything felt shaky and uncertain. He noticed he had started playing a different song than he started with. It took him a while to recognize it was that song he'd heard in the antique store in 2015. He couldn't remember it all but it had been strangely fitting to his situation, so for the rest of the day, he sat leaned against the amp playing that song. Absorbed in better times.

**Author's Note:**

> In case it's not obvious this was based on the song Some Nights by Skillet
> 
> Whenever I hear the song I have this vivid image of Marty leaning against his giant amp in Doc Brown's garage looking slightly forlorn and remembering the time he spent with his friend.
> 
> This doesn't match up with the timeline from Back to the Future The Game (where Doc and Clara buy back the garage and move in after another string of time-traveling shenanigans at the end) because I originally wrote this before I had played it and I'm too lazy to make more than minor grammar fixes
> 
> Also this isn't necessarily Marty really like...wanting to be in his original timeline it's just like...he's a lil lost and sad and at least in the original one from the start of the movies he knew why. He probably isn't super aware of depression since mental illness you were kinda encouraged not to talk about back in the 80s so he's suffering from it a bit and doesn't know it. He's just upset and confused because "my life's what I wanted now why aren't I happier?" 
> 
> Please tell me what you thought, or what needs work (because I'm sure that the whole thing does)


End file.
